Before I started kettlebell training, I was at war with my body. I also didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life and felt disconnected from the people around me.
I had just quit my promising career in climate change research because I was disappointed that science had become a political instrument.
I also stopped running, my big passion, because I was fed up with being frequently injured.
On top of that, I went through just another heartbreak and left the small town I was living in to escape the pain. I moved to Berlin, feeling lost and lonely.
Fast forward seven years, and I am doing work I love, enjoy meaningful friendships, and enjoy running ultramarathons injury-free. I have a clear purpose, actively choose how I live each day, and am excited about the life I am leading and the goals I still want to achieve.
And it all started by ordering a pair of kettlebells.
By challenging myself daily with weights, I became strong and self-confident. And I learned how to honor my body’s needs.
This transformation was possible because I applied the lessons I have learned from seven years of kettlebell training to other areas of my life.
Below, I am sharing those lessons with you. Enjoy 😊.
1. Don’t grip too tight.
In kettlebell training, we distinguish between “grinding” and “ballistic” lifts. The “grinds” are those lifts that most people know from standard strength training routines: presses, squats, deadlifts, and rows.
The ballistics, however, are unique to kettlebell training. These include the well-known kettlebell swing and the cousins of the barbell Olympic lifts – the clean and the snatch.
The kettlebell ballistics can be executed as high repetition sets without the increased injury risk that performing their barbell counterparts at high repetition sets presents.
However, if you want to keep the skin on the palm of your hands intact when doing high-volume work with the kettlebell ballistics, you need to learn how to loosen your grip.
Grip too tight, and the constant rubbing of the handle against your skin will leave your hands blistered and wounded in no time. Besides, gripping too tight will prevent the bell from traveling smoothly, and you will constantly try to correct its path.
And just as in kettlebell training, we need to learn to loosen our grip on life if we want to travel more easily and gracefully.
We must face the truth that not all our plans will pan out, and not all our dreams and goals will come true. When life throws us a curveball and fear takes over, or our anxiety gets triggered, we must resist the urge to try to control everything.
But loosening our grip doesn’t mean giving up on our hopes and dreams. Quite the contrary. It means we can pursue them from a place of gratitude for the beauty already present in our lives.
It means living at ease with the present, doing the best we can while at the same time letting go of the need to control every little detail along the way and allowing things and people to move in and out of our lives freely.
2. You will never reach perfection.
Kettlebell training is more than just lifting heavier weights over time. It is about constantly refining and perfecting your technique. Some kettlebell lifts, such as the clean, are highly technical and require many hours of focused practice to master them.
And while you should always try to improve your lifting technique, the truth is that you will never be able to reach perfection.
Even the most advanced kettlebell lifters will strive to become stronger, more enduring, and technically more proficient. They know they will never reach perfection but are trying to get closer to it anyway.
Contrast this with how often we approach life.
So many of us strive for perfection yet struggle to make meaningful progress toward our goals. Why is this? Because we let our need for perfection hold us back.
We don’t publish that article because we fear our not-so-perfect English will have others laugh at our attempt.
We don’t create that YouTube video because we’re ashamed of our not-so-perfect looks.
And we don’t start our business because the circumstances are not perfect.
If we wait a little longer, our lives would be more ideally suited to go after our dreams. You must let go of your desire to be perfect and have the ideal conditions.
Perfect doesn’t exist. Don’t let it stop you from taking action.
3. Trust your instincts
When you start snatching heavy kettlebells overhead, you need to develop trust. Trust that your shoulders can handle the weight. Trust that your technique is flawless so you don’t bang your wrist and give yourself bruises. And trust that you can safely drop the bell back down.
Through focused practice, you learn how to move with the bells, direct force, and master your breath to master your body. Over time, the movements become intuitive, and you develop a deep trust in your abilities.
In life, we must be equally able to trust our abilities and instincts.
Sadly, many of us are out of touch with our inner wisdom by reaching adulthood. We forget our childhood dreams or have come to believe that they are unattainable and instead follow the path society has laid out for us.
Our inner voice gets drowned out by the noise of the modern world.
Advertising, media, and others living seemingly perfect lives on social media convince us what we need and who we should be to be happy. But living up to other people’s standards will never truly fulfill us.
We must learn to trust our instincts when making life choices.
Meditation, spending time in nature, and journaling are all tools that can help us reconnect with ourselves.
4. Presence is everything.
Kettlebell training requires you to stay focused. Learning new lifts requires being present. Attempting heavy lifts requires being present. And when you do a timed set of ballistic lifts, you must stay present. Thinking about the end and how many minutes you still have to go will make the weight feel much heavier, making it harder for you to complete the set.
But kettlebell training not only requires focus, it also teaches it. Regular strength training calms your mind and has been shown to have various mental health benefits.
Presence has become a superpower in our modern world.
So many of us rush through life, busy switching from one task to another. We live in the past and worry about the future, missing out on the beauty of the present moment.
The present moment is all we ever have.
We will never be happy if we postpone our happiness to some imagined future. And if we keep reliving our past hurts, we will never experience peace.
The greatest gift we can give ourselves and others is to be fully present. Practice giving your full attention to the task, no matter how unimportant it may seem.
And most importantly, practice giving the person you are with your full attention. Put away your phone while having dinner with your loved ones, and switch off the TV.
Be there for them.
5. Getting strong is hard. Staying weak is harder.
Becoming physically strong requires effort. You need to get out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself. You will get sore, tired, and have days and weeks without motivation to train.
But you must be willing to push through the discomfort. If you want to get strong, you must show up consistently, whether short on time or short on motivation.
Because the alternative is staying weak. And staying weak is harder.
Stay weak, and don’t experience the joy of being able to carry your children or grandchildren on your shoulders.
Stay weak and risk being unable to move around without assistance when you are in your 80’s.
Stay weak and miss out on the joy and excitement of discovering how strong you truly are.
Sadly, too few people choose to become strong. This is true not only for the physical but also for the mental.
We complain and blame our bosses when we get passed over for a promotion instead of accepting what is and proactively looking for ways to improve ourselves.
We run away and ghost people as soon as problems in our relationships arise instead of seeking to understand each other and trying counseling first.
We blame the government, parents, bosses, and society for our lack of progress toward our goals.
And when life’s hardships present themselves, which they invariably will, the weak crumble and give up.
Become strong so that you can weather the storms of life.
6. Tension causes fatigue.
Strength training with kettlebells teaches you how and when to use tension and how and when to use relaxation. Simply put, you need to use maximum tension when aiming to develop maximum strength.
For example, when doing a military press, locking out your knees, squeezing your glutes, and bracing your core will increase your pressing strength. The flip side, however, is that tension tires you out quickly.
You can only bang out a few hardstyle kettlebell swings with maximum tension. Contrast this with a more softstyle approach to kettlebell swings, where the aim is to be as efficient as possible. The movement is more fluid and less tense. For those unfamiliar with kettlebell training, I have included a comparison of the two styles in the video below.
To navigate life successfully, we must learn when to apply tension and when to apply relaxation.
And most of us are too tense most of the time. We are stressed, worried, and overstimulated. This constant tension creates physical symptoms like fatigue, headaches, and muscle aches.
It robs us of the ability to notice life’s everyday miracles.
If you are chronically stressed and exhausted, you must find ways to lighten your load.
Set and enforce clear boundaries at work with your family and friends. Learn to say no to energy drainers and say yes to energy givers more often.
Spend less time on social media and more time in nature instead. Move your body and try relaxation techniques like yoga and meditation.
Learn to relax so that you can be maximally tense during those times you really need to be.
7. Commit to giving it your all.
When strength training, you must be committed to giving it your all. You can’t approach a heavy weight you can lift for five repetitions maximum half-heartedly.
Why?
Because you must be able to activate as many motor units within a muscle as possible to develop as much strength as possible.
One important concept to understand is the so-called “all-or-none-law.”
This concept states that a motor unit can only be activated fully or not at all. In other words, you need to apply enough force to stimulate all muscle fibers within a specific motor unit to activate that motor unit. If that threshold is not reached, then none of the muscle fibers within that motor unit will be activated.
It is all or nothing.
In life, many of us give less than our all.
How often have you set yourself a goal but failed to achieve it? When you want a project to succeed, your relationship with your spouse to last, and to be in excellent health, you must fully commit to these things.
You know when you are not fully committed because you make excuses, shirk responsibilities, and blame others or your life circumstances for your lack of results.
You must remember that everything worth doing is worth doing well.
Commit to fewer things in life so that you can commit fully.
And commit to life itself. Don’t live life with your handbrake on. Live fully and soak in all the beauty and miracles this world offers.